Pressure

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Therefore, tell the Children of Israel, “Iam Hashem, and I will take you out from under
the suffering of Egypt, save you from their slavery, and redeem you with an outstretched
arm and great judgments. And I will take you to Me for a nation, and I will be to you for
a Lord, and you will know that I am Hashem your Lord that takes you out from under the
sufferings of Egypt. And I will bring you to the land that I raised My hand (in oath) to
give to Avraham, to Yitzchok and to Yaakov, and I will give it to you as a heritage -I am
Hashem. Moshe spoke thus to the Children of Israel, but they did not listen to Moshe
because of shortness of spirit and difficult labor.
(Exodus 6:6-9)

From the Torah you see that two issues prevented the Jews from “listening”to Moshe: (1)
Shortness of spirit (kotzer ruach) and (2) Difficult labor. One readily understands how back-breaking
labor can deny a people inspiration. If one is physically exhausted, he often has great difficulty generating
enthusiasm. I am confident that we can all relate to this idea from our own experiences returning home
from a full days work. One can only imagine what our mental state would be if our work involved
physically exhausting labor!
What is more difficult to understand is “shortness of spirit”? What exactly is that, and how is it a
distinct problem from difficult labor? Why even bother mentioning it? Wasn’ t the shortness of spirit
(assuming it means an inability to be inspired), merely the result of the labor? If so, why is it listed as a
second reason they did not listen to Moshe?
The source of “shortness of spirit”is an earlier development in the slavery of the Children of
Israel. It is such a subtle point, that its significance can be easily overlooked.
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The King of Egypt said to them, “Why shall Moshe and Aharon disturb the nation from its
activities -go to your burdens!” Pharaoh said, “The nation of the land are many now,

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and you are going to relieve them from their burdens?” Pharaoh commanded the
taskmasters and the policemen on that day saying, “Do not continue to give straw to the
nation to build the bricks as in the past; they shall go and gather straw for themselves.
The quota of bricks that they have done in the past you shall demand of them, do not
diminish from it; because they are slacking, they therefore cry out saying, ‘
Let us go and
sacrifice to our Lord.’Weigh down the burden on the men and they will do it, and they
will not occupy themselves with nonsense.”
(Exodus 5:4-9)
When Moshe announced to the Children of Israel, that God was redeeming them, he inspired the
entire nation, despite their physically drained state and resulting mental weakness. The response of
Pharaoh, curiously enough, was not to make the labor more strenuous, but rather to create greater
pressure to meet quotas and deadlines. Previously, the materials for the bricks were provided by the
government. From now on, the Jews would have to procure the materials as well. I do not know if the
government imported the materials, or from whence they otherwise derived, but it would appear that the
Jews were forced to search all over the land for materials that were not readily available. Furthermore, not
only were they now required to supply themselves with the raw materials, but the required output of final
product was not reduced an iota. This combination resulted in an intense pressure on the Jewish slaves to
spend every waking moment involved in their work, in one way or another.
The verses state his intent explicitly: to prevent inspirational thoughts of independence from
entering their minds. He forced them to focus on the labor to such an extent that there was no time to
think about anything else. If they would tarry, even by mere day-dreaming, they risked failure in fulfilling
the quota of bricks. The result would be severe beatings and other unpleasant consequences.

The approach of Pharaoh reflects a sophisticated understanding of the human psyche, and a cold,
calculated response to the redemptive dreams of our people. The mental mechanism utilized by Pharaoh
involved forcing their minds to be focused solely on their work through the pressure of imminent deadlines
(and the consequences of failing to meet them). He understood that despite back-breaking labor, a
human being still has time to dream, to think, to consider the state of his life and his aspirations.
Therefore, his response to the inspiration Moshe produced was not to increase the difficulty of the labor,
but to ensure that they did not have the time to even think about it. There was simply too much to do.
For this reason, “shortness of spirit”is a distinct reason why the Children of Israel did not “listen”
to Moshe. It is not a reference to their weakened mental state resulting from the labor, it refers to their
inability to consider the message of Moshe due to the constraints on their time -there was not a spare
moment.

I think that we find this type of pressure easy to relate to. We understand deadlines, we
experience constant stress and pressure. In modern times, even stores and businesses whose doors close at

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night, stay open twenty four-six due to the internet and the blackberry at one’ s side. We are constantly
“on the go”. We should not fool ourselves however, into believing that it does not affect us.
When we feel stressed and pressured, we become unable to properly focus on our avodas Hashem.
It is plainly, and painfully obvious that when one is under pressure and experiencing stress as a result, he
cannot avoid some degree of negative expression of his strain (usually towards his wife and children, or
whomever is closest to him). This type of pressure causes us to lose our focus on the details of our
mitzvos, and sometime the actual mitzvos themselves (loving others as ourselves is also a mitzvah!). We
risk becoming, almost robots, mechanistically performing our duty on the proverbial economic assembly
line. How lovely.

The Messilas Yeshorim tells us that the very first step towards God and the next world, is
consciousness -becoming aware of and considering our actions. What am I about to do? How shall I do
it differently in the future? At the very least, what did I just do! We tell our children all the time, “Think
before you act”. This is difficult enough when we are not under pressure, and nigh impossible when we
are stressed out.

How do we deal with this unavoidable reality?

One thing to keep in mind, is that the most difficult time to deal with stress is once we are
experiencing it. We have to try to deal with it before it is being experienced, by developing and
maintaining the proper perspective; awareness of “reality”and priority. What is important? What is our
priority? No mentally healthy individual, no matter how stressed, will beat up the boss, because he knows
his job is at stake, and that is the “most important”thing. However, if we know1 that one of the three
basic purposes of life2 is to respond properly to those moments when we are challenged by the stress, then
dealing harshly with our loved ones becomes the “most important thing”,and THAT is actually beating up
the Boss -Hashem -who commanded us never to do that! True, this is easier said than done -but that
doesn’ t absolve us of our responsibility to be conscious of it!

There is one area that is completely in our control, and unfortunately, by not controlling it, we
become our own Pharaoh. Humans seek constant stimulation. We find it impossible to walk down the
street without our eyes wandering everywhere, searching for something interesting. Try, for ten seconds to
think about nothing. Not white, nothing. I dare you!
It is not surprising therefore, that in today’
s world, no one is sitting still. Everyone is constantly
involved with their phone, ipod, or something. Our constant search for stimulation is not a problem, it is a
beautiful, unique aspect of humankind. The issue is how we use this drive. I find that most people use this

1. Knowledge = An intellectual idea that has been internalized and translated into an emotional reality.
2. See the first chapter of Messilas Yeshorim where he unequivocally states that the purpose of life is threefold: To (1) serve God, (2) do
mitzvos, and (3) pass the challenges and tests of life.

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talent to distract themselves; to create a “shortness of spirit”;never allowing their minds to focus on any
given thought for more than a few seconds, at best, a few minutes. Certainly not considering their actions,
past or future.
In school, at meetings, even important business meetings, many, if not most of those present, are
distracting themselves with their (im)personal devices. We have allowed ourselves to get sucked in to a
culture of distraction. We have nearly lost our ability to concentrate. We are busy, very busy. When we
live like this, how will we ever find the time to think about what we are going to do and what we just did.
Was our action proper or improper? How will we respond next time. How does God want me to
respond? How can I develop the correct perception so that I will not respond emotionally next time?
These are the thoughts we should be having while we are walking, driving, or whenever we have spare
time.
To sum up, I think that there are two areas today that result in a “shortness of spirit”:(1) Our
constant focus on our livelihood and (2) our constant involvement with forms of stimulation.

Pharaoh invented the first blackberry, kotzer ruach3. We must not be our own Pharaoh, we need
to find ways to relax and think about our lives, our actions and our responses. We need to find ways to
put down the blackberries and everything else that keeps our minds misdirected and occupied with work
and often pure nonsense, so that we can focus better on what is really important. How to do this may not
be so simple for everyone, but I think the point is valid and well worth considerable consideration.

Sorry for the heavy mussar, and I am saying it to myself, but I think that it is a critical problem in
today’
s world. I see it all the time.

3. See Messilas Yeshorim in zehirus who makes reference to this approach of Pharaoh in exactly the way we mentioned.